Tell the City Council “NO more money for Zoo”

The Seattle City Council’s final Budget Meeting is tomorrow. Please come to speak out against funding the confinement of suffering animals. Ask the City Council to put the money toward parks programs, off-leash parks and under-served communities rather than more money for the zoo.

Also, please write an email with NO more money for the zoo in the subject line to: Council@seattle.gov

The City has a contract with the Woodland Park Zoo which mandates over $7 million dollars in annual payments. (King County pays the zoo $4.2 million annually). The 2017 budget includes an additional $1.8 million dollars to the Zoo through the Seattle Parks District. The City Council makes the Seattle Parks District’s funding decisions. This $1.8 million dollars is DISCRETIONARY and must be stopped.

The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. and all in-person 2 minute (or less) comments will be heard. Sign-up sheets will be provided outside the entrance of the City Council Chambers. If you wish to speak, please sign up at 4:15.

What: Seattle City Council BUDGET meeting.When: Tuesday, October 25 at 5:30pmPublic comment: Sign up at 4:15pmWhere: Seattle City Hall at 600 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104. City Hall chambers on the second floor.

The U.S. government wants factory farms that use unanesthetized castration, debeaking, dehorning and prolonged extreme confinement to be able to label their meat as “humane.”

As the Huffington Post puts it, “Up is down, black is white, and this meat was ‘raised with care.'”

Please let the U.S. Department of Agriculture know that the truth actually means something to consumers in this country. We’re in a public comment period for proposed new guidelines from the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, and you can leave your comment here.

Here’s what I sent: “You seriously think meat farms should be able to define ‘humane’ on their own? How can you call yourselves regulators any more? The truth actually means something to consumers and to farms that do bother to treat animals with some humanity. Please do your job.”

For context, here’s part of the toothless new proposed guideline:

“For animal welfare claims, such as ‘Raised with Care’ or ‘Humanely Raised,’ FSIS will only approve a claim if a statement is provided on the label showing ownership and including an explanation of the meaning of the claim for consumers, e.g., ‘TMB Ranch Defines Raised with Care as [explain the meaning of the claim on the label]’ or ‘TMB Ranch Defines Sustainably Raised as [explain meaning of the claim on the label].'”

How is that even regulation? Sounds like somebody’s taking a page from bank regulators, who have allowed financial institutions to do way too much self-regulation.

That kind of laziness hurts consumers and, in this case, would hurt farms that have more humane practices. If factory farms can charge higher prices because they’re pretending to treat animals better than they actually do — and have the blessing of regulators in doing so — it could put the smaller, more humane farmers out of business.

Perdue Farms and Kroger have settled lawsuits about such labeling, and now the goverment wants to make it okay.

One Perdue chicken farmer turned against Perdue, a company he’d done business with, because of its misleading claims, as The New York Times reported.

The farmer invited Compassion in World Farming to make this video to show the truth of these chicken’s miserable lives, which include lameness, filth, raw skin and a lack of sunshine and fresh air:

Calendar

March2019

If you wish to have an agenda item added to the NARN Board Meeting, please email info@narn.org at least a day in advance. You can also send us a message on Facebook anytime or even the day of the meeting and we'll do our best to get back to you.

Animal rights lawyer Adam Karp and No Bones Beach Club are sponsoring a screening of the film Dominion, followed by a presentation of various legal issues the animal rights community faces when it comes to trying to help animals raised for food.
To get your free ticket to attend and to learn more, please see the Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2090832197805855/

Highline is hosting a fundraiser Bingo event for Precious Life Animal Sanctuary
Precious Life is a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing and providing a safe home for abused, neglected, abandoned farm and companion animals, teaching humane education and advocating against practices that perpetuate animal suffering.

See the Facebook event page for more information
https://www.facebook.com/events/801845666842391/

If you cannot make this event please considering donating directly to them www.preciouslifeanimalsanctuary.org/donate.html

The Center for Biological Diversity is hosting events around the country to help educate people on how to be a better advocate for wolves. The Seattle Wild for Wolves Rendezvous is in Northgate area of Seattle on March 5 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Connect with other people who loves wolves, learn about the current threats, write comments, and plan next steps. Please join when you can during the time window. RSVP here

Join the Puget Sound Vegans Meet-up for a discussion on co-housing
Imagine living in a community where your neighbors share your values on compassion, sustainability, and everyone eats a plant-based diet.
There's a lot happening in the cohousing world, and we're going to take a look at creating a vegan cohousing community in the Seattle area.

Check out this website for a wealth of information:
cohousing.org.

For more information and to RSVP, see the Meet-up page
https://www.meetup.com/Puget-Sound-Vegans/events/259438857/

Join PNW Vegan Singles member Michael Haug at his dance studio for an enjoyable and unique experience! Flow Studios teaches a physical language, learning the science of physical communication and partnership dancing. This empowers you to be more original and expressive with your movement, and develop skills to dance well to all styles of music, with anybody. It feels good and it is fun!

We will have a 1 hour “Intro to Flow” dance lesson, followed by an hour dance mixer. Feel free to bring vegan friendly goodies and come to have a good time, because you will! You may also invite up to two guests. This is the perfect opportunity to experience an amazing activity with like minded folks.

Wear light shoes that you are comfortable moving in and dress comfortably.

You know you want to go vegan or recently made the switch, but you have all these questions.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could just ask them in a safe, supportive environment, and have knowledgeable and caring vegans give straight-forward answers?
This is your chance!
Come out to our monthly Go Vegan 101 Workshop, and we'll address any questions you have about going – and staying – vegan. Everything from ethics, environmental issues, and of course nutrition.
We will provide plenty of resources, mentorship program, and of course, vegan snacks! These workshops are casual and open to everyone. Stay the whole time, or drop in as you are able to, and bring a friend!
This month we will be in the small meeting room of the Shoreline Library.

Join the Humane Society of the United States and fellow animal lovers for Humane Lobby Day on Wednesday, March 20.

This once-a-year opportunity is your chance to learn about animal welfare bills going through Washington's legislature, support key animal protection issues and meet with your legislators to urge them to improve the quality of life for animals in your state.

The University of Washington's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) will be meeting to discuss various research protocols (study designs). This is your chance to voice your opinion about the research on animals that goes on at the UW. Please come and speak for the animals!
The meetings are held at the South Campus Center; Room #342 (in between San Juan Road & Columbia Road); behind the Magnuson Health Sciences Center (1925 N.E. Pacific St) )
http://www.washington.edu/maps/

You can also check out their calendar here (copy & paste link into your browser)
http://oaw.washington.edu/iacuc-meeting-schedule/

This month we are going to check out Luna Azul! They serve Latin cuisine and have a large variety of delicious vegan options. They have been really upping their vegan game lately, so let's show them how much we appreciate it.
Check out their menu here:
https://lunaazulseattle.wordpress.com/menu-2/

The Social Discussion Group is a casual event. Drinkers and non-drinkers are welcome, and you don't have to be vegetarian to participate. We hope you'll join us! Questions? Contact rachel[at]narn[dot]org